Make Anything Happen Book Review

Mini Fangirl Confession: I love Carrie Elle. I have seen her speak twice (at two Winter Planner-Lands) and regularly peep her instagram and blog when I should be doing other things. She’s one of the people in the Planner-verse I find extremely relatable. When I saw she had a book at her booth this year at WPL, I snapped it up (and got her to sign it too, because of course I did).

Make Anything Happen: A Creative Guide to Vision Boards, Goal Setting, and Achieving the Life of Your Dreams is part guide book, part activity book, and part confessional. The book is broken up into three sections; defining your dreams, visualizing those dreams, and making them happen. Carrie Elle walks you through with little tales from her own life that have worked, or caused her to make those changes. No major adversity or mountains to climb; no tales of redemption or heros journey’s to get through. Just the things that have worked for her, and some that didn’t but maybe they might for you. Overall, it’s a nice, easy breezy read that gets you motivated to put those ideas in to practice. It’s not a deep read by any means, but it’s a handy motivational tool to have on your bookshelf if you are struggling with a brain block and need a creative way out.

Some highlights for me were the talk about creative notetaking and how your brain remembers info better when it’s doodled as opposed to just written down and the connection she made to her poster covered high school bedroom walls essentially being a giant vision board. There are a handful of worksheets sprinkled in to nudge you along the way, but not so many that you feel like they’re just padding the length of the book.

Additional perks include additional book recommendations for relevant topics sprinkled throughout, links back to full worksheets and templates on her blog, a facebook group, and beautiful photos that are a bit like an ISpy of craft items.

It’s a fun way to get motivated and creative to make a vision board. There is even a template that you can use to get started. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon productively procrastinating. I made mine instead of doing my laundry!

Reading Make Anything Happen was like having a conversation with your “has it all together” friend over coffee who assures you she puts her pants on one leg at a time and then gives some tips on how you can get going down that road yourself. The advice isn’t preachy or deep, but helpful reminders on how to go about setting and achieving goals that you can go back to again and again. It’s a worthwhile addition to the crafting cart.